Monika Viktorova

The latest #JOLTS data for June 2025 show most indicators little or unchanged since May. Job openings ticked down but have been flat for most of the last year, almost exactly the level of job openings as in June 2024. Other measures continue to be a bit softer than last year.
#EconSky @epi.org

How 3M Discovered, Then Concealed, the Dangers of Forever Chemicals The company found its own toxic compounds in human blood—and kept selling them.

How did 3M’s “forever chemicals” end up in all of us? Sharon Lerner reports the inside story of the corporate scientists who discovered—then helped to conceal—the dangers of its chemicals.

Sorta feels like "they are actively gutting cancer research" should be finding more purchase out there

Things That Sound Like Hyperbole But Aren't: the world's dominant communications systems now principally reward the production and sharing of information that is directly harmful not only to democracy but to life on Earth.

The rent is too damn high, and the worst people imaginable are ruining Montreal When it comes to the housing crisis, Montreal needs to address predatory speculators, negligent property owners keeping the rent too high.

The rent is too damn high, and the worst people imaginable are ruining Montreal

“Predatory property speculators are renovicting people out of their homes and running illegal Airbnbs, while new housing is geared to foreign owners and the ultra-wealthy.”

An editorial by @taylornoakes.com.

slurpee machine with one crashed screen

I'm drinking the Bios Crash slurpee I hope it crashes my bios I hope I blue screen

Require age verification on website -> everyone starts using VPNs -> pass law placing restrictions on consumer VPNs -> VPN black market expands -> "yeah we'll investigate this crime ASAP, just waiting for admin@poopvpn420 to respond to our subpoena".

Learning how to interpret a source as valid or not, critically evaluate the data collection & results, and then actually incorporate it in a meaningful way into the thesis and body of the paper- is the skill students learn! More so than the paper, although if well done is also an achievement.

We’re living through the worst era of information warfare we’ve ever seen. It’s never been more important know know how to research and fact check, and to actually have a personal network of experts

Unfortunately it’s also never been more important to play offence on personal privacy/opsec

Ed Childs, a dining hall worker, was the most important professor I had at Harvard:

"Each time I speak with him, Childs dons different versions of the same red sweatshirt with two clasped hands and the words “Never Surrender” emblazoned across the top — souvenirs from the union’s 1983 strike."

To use a tool effectively that hallucinates means to have the knowledge to be able to check the work for the right answer - which means actually learning the material. Students can’t use AI effectively if they haven’t actually done the hard work first

A friend of mine teaches at UofT. ~10% of her class just got cited to the academic integrity office because their assignments had fake sources- a telltale sign of AI use

Making up a source is a serious academic offence- but kids are seeing these press releases and getting pushed to use these tools

Abstract: While it seems sensible that human-centred artificial intelligence (AI) means centring “human behaviour and experience,” it cannot be any other way. AI, I argue, is usefully seen as a relationship between technology and humans where it appears that artifacts can perform, to a greater or lesser extent, human cognitive labour. This is evinced using examples that juxtapose technology with cognition, inter alia: abacus versus mental arithmetic; alarm clock versus knocker- upper; camera versus vision; and sweatshop versus tailor. Using novel definitions and analyses, sociotechnical relationships can be analysed into varying types of: displacement (harmful), enhancement (beneficial), and/or replacement (neutral) of human cognitive labour. Ultimately, all AI implicates human cognition; no mat- ter what. Obfuscation of cognition in the AI context — from clocks to artificial neural networks — results in distortion, in slowing critical engagement, pervert- ing cognitive science, and indeed in limiting our ability to truly centre humans and humanity in the engineering of AI systems. To even begin to de-fetishise AI, we must look the human-in-the-loop in the eyes. Keywords: artificial intelligence; cognitive science; sociotechnical relationship; cognitive labour; artificial neural network; technology; cognition; human-centred AI

💫 Just out! A tour de force by my colleague @olivia.science, new paper 📝:

What Does 'Human-Centred AI' Mean? 🧮 ⏰ 🧠

Keywords: AI; cognitive science; sociotechnical relationship; cognitive labour; ANN; technology; cognition; human-centred AI

Link to the paper on arXiv: lnkd.in/e9nHGkMK 1/n

Interesting to see two major news outlets — The Verge and Wired — both announce major newsletter strategies nearly simultaneously. I suspect both are motivated by the hope that email will be "stickier" than the (declining) direct traffic to news websites.

Cartoon with corporate media asking U.S. Government how it would like "Control of Internet Speech" wrapped: Anti-terrorism or protect kids

t's amazing how this is from more than 20 years ago but very well could have been from today.

One of the most common problems with electronics is "cord got bad" and when you figure out you can make "cord good again" or even "cord new now" that's a life-changing moment in your DIY life.

I really do think people believing the almost entirely fictional stories of human interpersonal horribleness on the Reddit homepage are taking an axe to society. This stuff is crack and it's written and architected really really well – and normal people do NOT write like that.

Paths to self-actualization was more limited when society was more precarious. But if we can meet basic needs and have an interconnected & information-rich society the paths are endless, and the traditional ones just become few of many options

I often wonder if one of the primary ways isolation & loneliness grows today is watching/participating in bad faith takes online. We’re creatures of wanting to fit in - can we really abstract ourselves from seeing & experiencing constant low grade conflict online?

About time a European leader said that out loud. It's been true for most of Europe for years now and has only gotten worse. EU doesn't want to admit that Russia is waging an active grey war against them but that only emboldens Russia to take it further.

We need go turn the tide on funding cuts to basic science research or lose the chance at incredible breakthroughs.
HIV has killed millions and devastated communities - and we’ve now effectively defeated it

Also why private/pair-only reviews aren't great: you want as many people on the team as possible to understand changes to the system they're working in!

Especially juniors! Their learning, and importantly, perspective to ask why your norms are there is great.

(Sometimes your normal shouldn't be.)

🙋‍♀️ would love to sign up!

Hertz' AI System That Scans for "Damage" on Rental Cars Is Turning Into an Epic Disaster Hertz' new AI damage scanners are dead on arrival — and unfortunately, it's not the only company deploying the shoddy tech.

The “efficiency” in this case is entirely to benefit the company, providing a ruling with no chance to appeal. Your human eyes don’t see a scrape? Who are you to challenge the machine?

I saw someone on bsky complain about this exact thing a few months ago and knew this article was coming

Why Michael Lewis is worried about the sports betting boom

Not a read but a really excellent pod that goes through the history of the legal changes that allowed the current boom

pca.st/episode/9a75...

Hunger surge strikes Middle East and Africa, UN survey shows Global crises are fueling hunger in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, with trade tensions, conflicts, and climate change driving food inflation, according to the UN's SOFI report. #EuropeNews

За хората, които казват "Даа, но на световно ниво гладът намалява": в някои региони намалява, но там където има конфликти и тежки ефекти от климатичната криза расте. И естествено винаги го отнасят най-бедните - фермерите, които обработват земята, за да се изхранват. www.euronews.com/my-europe/20...

Unfortunately most people don’t recognize their new onset conditions as a result of Covid (and dr’s aren’t helping/educating). Someone told me this weekend their friend had “unusually developed adult onset type 1 diabetes”. I told them that’s a likely post-Covid sequelae and they were surprised

OHSU study suggests long COVID may be more common than previously thought Even mild cases of COVID-19 in monkeys were linked to chronic health conditions that emerged later.

1. The most important concept in this excellent article is this:

'the team wanted to explore what he called a “*reciprocal relationship*” between COVID-19 and chronic conditions'.

* my emphasis

www.oregonlive.com/health/2025/...